What are the best methods of surge protection in car audio?

[Miggy1582]

I know that circuit breakers and fuses are used in car audio to protect surges of power from damaging electronics, but are there other options available?

In home audio, there are components called Line conditioners. They continually test the power and shut it down when there is inconsistent surges or spikes. If there is a spike. it disconnects the supply to the connected components and protects the equipment.

Similarly, there are car jumper cables that do the same thing. They test to make sure the power source is safe and connected properly before it supplies power to the drained battery. This technology is run by a microprocessor. anyway....

Is there something like this for car audio? I mean are there hundreds? thousands? of people damaging their equipment from power surges. ruining equipment? is there a need for something like this in the car audio. I am trying to get a grip on the products available and potentially the need for a new product.

Click to read more...

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

In all car audio equipment, there is already provisions for that in the item's power supply. For instance in head units there is a dc to dc converter with capacitors to keep up with low voltage issues.

 

[midnightg35x 10+ year member]

Transient voltage suppression diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

Transient voltage suppression diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, I didn't want to get that technical since he didn't know what he was asking about exactly //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[Wingman0121 10+ year member]

Line conditioners and surge protectors exist in home audio because they all initially receive 110~120v AC, which is quite dangerous and can kill people and start fires. Usually the AC to a house is quite stable but things like thunderstorms, lightnings, large industrial motors and high-electricity demand within the house can wreak havoc to the electricity going into your electronics. Surge protectors are made to filter out AC line noise from nearby electronics, in an event of overvoltage it'll absorb that extra incoming voltage so it doesn't fry your electronics(that's why you should replace them after a known overvoltage condition). Some surge protectors also have a "brown-out" preventer which cuts power to its outlets in an event when the AC voltage drops below 100v or so. AC Line conditioners are made to not only protect your electronics from "bad" incoming voltage, it also make sure the voltage going to your home electronics stays around 117v AC.

In car audio there isn't really much to spike voltage unless the alternator is faulty or your car got struck by lightning, but 99% of the time it is low voltage that kills car electronics. I would say one or more extra batteries can act as DC voltage line conditioners as long as you can keep it charged.